This invention relates to the provision of data over the Internet and, more particularly, to a system for ascertaining the demography of the users of the Internet.
With the increased usage of the Internet comes the problem of deciding how and where to direct the information from the provider""s point of view. With the advent of so-called xe2x80x9cpushxe2x80x9d systems in which providers have direct access to the PC at the client side in a client/server application, it is increasingly important that the provider be provided with information so as to be able to direct the services to those users who are most likely to be interested.
In the past, the only type of demographic information that was available was to xe2x80x9cguessxe2x80x9d the usage of the system through use of sampling research data. In systems in which sampling research data is involved, a given research company will ask a major provider how many pieces of software were sold to the various users. Based on the data of the sales of the enabling software, the research company, utilizing mathematical techniques, provides demographic information to the provider based on a series of assumptions about the user.
However, the utilization of statistics alone based on the sales of software, for example, is not at all accurate in terms of providing the provider with targeted information as to the xe2x80x9crealxe2x80x9d demography of the user or client. For instance, it is impossible through statistics alone based on a single input such as sales to derive information relating to the CPU size and seed at the user, hard disk space availalle, information relating to the network connection such as dial-up cable modem connection information and ISDN connections, a list of the inventories indicating the applications running on the particular computer involved, as well as peripherals such as sound cards connected to the computer at the client side. Moreover, there is no way to ascertain the log-in history for each of the Internet users, such that critical information for the providers is not existent.
Critical information which is not available from traditional research is infrastructure information for a particular PC, such as CPU power, viewer, sound card and Internet connection information.
What is meant by the term xe2x80x9cviewerxe2x80x9d is what type of protocol is being run on the machine such as MPEG, QUICKTIME, AVI, and PDF.
The sum total of this infrastructure information would be useful for the decision maker at the provider as to decide whether or not, for instance, it is worth the money to make 3 megabytes of MPEG video available for advertising based on the above infrastructure demography. Thus, it is impossible for this decision maker to ascertain whether the Internet advertisement delivery will be efficient and worth enough to justify the cost, much less, for instance, providing an Internet video advertisement, the cost of which must be justified by assuring a number of targeted viewers for the subject matter of the video advertisement.
In order to provide such needed data to a content provide that wants to use the Internet connection, in one embodiment, client software is installed at each PC which can detect the infrastructure of the PC. The software which is provided by the provider to the user enables sensing CPU power, hard disk space, the applications running or installed, network connectivity and the log-in history. Since each client software has a unique serial number, sensing the serial number at the server side provides for rapid transfer and loading of a database with infrastructure data which is reported to the server periodically, for instance, every two seconds. At the server side, the database can be updated frequently to provide instant demographics of the particular user. It will be appreciated that the database can be filtered by such factors as location so that the provider can be apprised of what locations would be most interested in the content that the provider wishes to transmit. This permits the provider to be able to limit the broadcast of the data to selected locations.
It will be noted that the client software is delivered by the provider to the end user. By so doing, each provider is apprised of its own members, thus to provide the provider with the demographics of its own members or subscribers. This enables the content providers to be able to decide the content size to be delivered, as well as the viewer software, and makes the decision as to how much and what should be provided to an individual user tailored to the particular user""s requirements.
For instance, in one operative embodiment, if a provider wants to make a two minute commercial, this can take as much eight megabytes to transmit. At this point, the provider must select what type of viewer software is required to play the eight megabytes of information, whether it is MPEG, QUICKTIME or some other format. By this manner, the provider can ascertain in real time whether or not the hard disk space is available at the user.
The distribution curve that is generatable through the utilization of the subject system, permits a bell curve to be formed in which hard disk space can be presented in terms of the number of users. Assuming that 8 megabytes is required, it can be determined what percentage of the channels are occupied by the information to be transmitted, and thus the number of PC""s that are available to receive the intended transmission. If, for instance, 8 megabytes represent 80% of the channels, then the provider may well be advised that there is a sufficient number of PCs that can receive the information to commit the resources to providing the content-and transmitting it.
As will be appreciated, the subject system permits the content provider to make a decision as to whether or not to invest in a given project based on real-time demographics of users connected to the Internet. Note that in general, demographics are from members of the provider since the provider provides the client software to the end user. As a result, not only can content be tailored to the audience which could receive it, but critical decisions can be made as to whether to provide the content at all based on real-time sensing of the demography of the users.
The result is that by use of the subject system, provider can make business decisions such as the size of the video message, the viewer of the video/audio message, and the timing for hyper-advertisements through pulling or pushing at appropriate times. The subject system also makes possible other decisions which are critical to the economic utilization of the Internet. Furthermore, the demographic information permits marketing decisions as to where to sell the software and hardware based on the infrastructure data and the destination of the PC, namely its IP address.
In summary, in an Internet-based client/server application, a system is provided which detects demographics of a client including CPU power, hard disk space, applications installed, network connectivity and log-in history so as to provide this infrastructure related information detailing client usage of the Internet to the service provider. In one embodiment, each user is provided with software having a unique serial number. Having the serial number, infrastructure data is checked at the client side and reported to the server periodically, with the server updating a database with the infrastructure data from each PC. In one embodiment, the database is filtered by factors such as location of the client and an indication of which providers delivered software to a client. After filtering, the service provider can obtain various demographics such as the demography of hard disk space, CPU power and viewers. In one embodiment, the demographics are used at the server to automatically selects the contents to be transmitted to the particular client. Thus the provider-can send the most appropriate contents to the most appropriate client based on demographic information of the client""s infrastructure.
Moreover, having derived the above demographic information, in one embodiment, an automatic selection system uses the demographics to provide specially tailored contents to the client. Files can thus be tailored to the client""s ability to receive the file or even as to what content should be delivered. Thus whether full frame video should be sent, whether audio should be sent, or indeed what format is appropriate can be selected.